February 28, 2026
Aniela Jaffé, quoting Carl Jung: “We can know nothing about the substance of the psyche when the sole means of knowing anything is the psyche.“ What does the Psyche know that we don’t know? How do we know what Psyche knows? Is Psyche everything? Is there anything not-Psyche? Does that make Psyche God? Does Psyche know herself? What is beyond knowing? Not-knowing? What is it that we don’t know? How do we come to know what we don’t know? If Psyche is “the sole means of knowing anything,” how can there be anything psyche doesn’t know? And how do we know more than we know? Is it merely a matter of our realizing what we know? Of knowing what we know? Beyond what we know? Do we know everything Psyche knows now and just don’t realize it? What is the method of realization? Listening? Looking? Seeing? Hearing? Does that lead to knowing? Just sitting quietly and seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding what comes? How do we know what Psyche knows? Asking questions? Making inquiries? If we just sit quietly and ask questions, as I am doing here, now, will that lead us to realization? Are we Psyche interviewing Herself, knowing what she knows? Are questions the source of answers? Are better questions the source of better answers? Do we know more by wanting to know more? By asking, seeking, knocking? Is “The art of asking the right questions” the source to the source of all our knowledge? Does Psyche expand by way of the quality of our questions?
March 01, 2026
Make a practice of writing your questions–not thinking of them but taking dictation as they come, as they appear, one question leading to another, adjusting them for clarity but receiving them as acceptable as they come.
What am I doing here? What needs to be done here? What is called for here, now? What is happening? What needs me to do it? What needs my help? How will we get to the bottom of things without someone to poke and probe, saying the things that need to be said, that cry out to be said, and asking the questions that beg to be asked? Of everyone? Of everything?
I would particularly like to interview Psyche. Who are you, Psyche? What are you about? Where did you come from? How did you get to be who you are? What are your earliest memories? Your deepest disappointments? Your greatest achievements? What do you need? How can I help with that? What is your purpose? What keeps you company? What are you living/working toward? What purposes are you serving? What drives you along the way? Where are you going? What constitutes success? Failure? What do you do on your days off? Are you the Big Boss of the Cosmos? Are you “That Which Has Always Been Called ‘God’?” Are you the essence of how things are? And of how things ought to be? How can I cooperate with you? How can I assist you? Be of service to you? What do I need to know? What would be helpful?
March 02, 2026
AI has produced a Richard Feynman lecture on the soul at this address: https://youtu.be/H9oeqq2vZJ8?si=MYeg_ID9YCGv3ayM
Making the case for Psyche (Soul) being a foundational aspect of the universe. Feynman died in 1988 but, thanks to AI, has achieved immortality using a script combed from his written works compiled through his life as a physicist, and is worth watching for the wonder of the production alone. But on another level, this is further evidence of the thesis of The Tao of Physics, which has been updated recently and stresses the similarities between scientific discoveries and the work of eastern religions on the matter of “soul and the universe.”
March 02, 2026
Settling into here, now, is a simple matter of putting ourselves in the service of what is called for regardless of our preferences, desires, wishes and wants. There is nothing to it beyond determining that we are here, now in the service of here, now, no matter what. We see what needs to be done and we do it. Nothing to it.
March 03, 2026
Psyche and Intuition and “Circumstances creating circumstances,” as the Old Taoists would say, and all the time necessary, are it. Everything flows from there to right here, right now.
Flow can be smooth and easy or chaotic and tumultuous like “the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea.” (The blind poet Homer). And with enough time, it all comes back to oneness and peace, until someone has a better idea and it all goes to hell again. This is the back-and-forth, up-and-down, that constitutes life and being in the Cosmos.
We align ourselves with peace and good will when we find our way to balance and harmony, seek out Psyche and Intuition and unite ourselves with that which is called for and needs to be done in each situation as it arises. We do this by identifying and cooperating with the sense of flow, movement, rhythm and the difference between being in sync and out of sync, at one with how things are and need to be and at odds with how things are and need to be in all the situations that arise throughout the time of our living.
The catch here is that we have to lay aside our wants, wishes, desires and our ideas for what constitutes our own, personal, good, advantage, best interests, etc. and live to serve the interests and direction of the flow, balance, harmony, etc. Ours has to become the way of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (And not the way of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden), with his, “Thy will, not mine be done,” with the “Thy” being the drift and flow, balance and harmony, of that which is called for and needs to be done, here, now, in each situation as it arises. What does the situation, the moment, call for? Do That! When, where, and how it needs to be done. This is doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place–the Old Taoist idea of how things ought to be now and forever.
When we get this down, we have it made, regardless of what is happening our life throughout the time left for living.
March 03, 2026
Our Psyche/Intuition is that aspect of each one of us who knows what’s what and what is called for and what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises. And on a cosmic scale she/they are that which knows what’s what and what is called for and what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises, and has been called The Tao by Taoists of every generation since the beginning of the beginning.
March 03, 2026
Can we close our eyes and be at peace? How long can we sit with our eyes closed and remain at peace?
What are the forces of instability and disruption that disturb our balance and harmony, our peace and quiet, our tranquility and serenity?
Can we sit quietly and watch our disturbance our serenity coming and going like the tides? Can we get to the source of our disturbance and serenity? Can we increase the serenity and decrease the disturbance? Can we explore the root source of both serenity and disturbance?
March 04, 2026
A conversation with one of the granddaughters had me replying to her question about what heaven was like, by saying, “I’m not going to heaven. I’m going to stay right here.” “But Pops, everybody wants to go to heaven.” “Not me,” I said, “I’m not getting on the bus.” “Mom,” she yelled out, “Pops says he’s not going to heaven!” Things went downhill from there.
March 04, 2026
There is how things are and there is how we wish things were. We live with the discrepancy. The more conscious we are of the discrepancy, the fewer symptoms we have, but the more we suffer. There is no escape from legitimate suffering. It’s when we try to escape, via diversion, distraction, denial, addiction that our symptoms mount and the real trouble begins. My recommendation is swearing. “Swear like a sailor,” as the saying goes. And here’s the important part: Laugh at yourself swearing. It’s great. You’ll love it. It’s the best way I know of through legitimate suffering. All the real gurus swear and laugh. You could look it up.
March 04, 2026
It comes down to us and our life. We spend our time focused on our life, trying to arrange things there like we want them to be. Our context and circumstances consume us in a “Not that! This!” kind of way. Streams, on the other hand, have more of an internal direction. A stream’s context is just the conditions under which it flows. It must flow, regardless of the circumstances. What we must do, is do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, regardless of the circumstances. Dogwoods bring forth their blooms, bending, stretching, contorting to find and reach the light. They must bloom. We are the stream, the dogwood. Our circumstances cannot be allowed to win. What is trying to come forth in us? Who must we be? What is ours to do? We have to find and bring ourselves forth however we can. And we often find ourselves in the process of bringing ourselves forth, in an “Oh, Peter! THERE you are!” kind of way.
March 04, 2026
Some things we cannot prepare for by reading, watching videos, and talking with people who have had experience with babies, say, or cats. I have a granddaughter who is 27, living alone, with a new cat. Which apparently is worse in several ways than having a new baby. If my granddaughter and the cat live through the experience and come out happily together on the other side, it will be a miracle equivalent to the parting of the Red Sea.
March 05, 2026
I am curious about Psyche’s idea of how things should be. And about our intuition’s goal in life. What are Psyche and Intuition working toward? Living in the service of? Here to bring about? What makes them happy? Constitutes a good day?
I’ve heard it said that “The universe strives for balance.” Hemostasis. Stability. The way “water seeks its own level.” I wonder what balance means for Psyche and Intuition.
I also wonder what life would be without thinking. The entire natural world gets by without much in the way of thinking. Remove the higher life forms and nature would do just fine on its own, feeling its way along all the way. Not knowing what it is doing, with one thing being as good as another all the way.
And I can’t see where the higher life forms have contributed anything of value to the workings of the cosmos as a whole. And I can see where things would be better off without human presence at all. We exist to entertain ourselves as far as I can tell without any cumulative improvement to any of the systems that support us. It is good that we don’t have to justify our existence. How would existence as a whole justify itself? Life exists to enjoy what can be enjoyed while doing as little damage as possible on its way through the world. No?
March 05, 2026
Our body knows what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises. All we have to do is listen to our body and allow it to guide our boat on its path through the sea. We think we know what we are doing, but our body knows what needs to be done. We ignore our body’s signals in favor of our wants and desires. And that is why things are in such a mess worldwide.
March 05, 2026
How we go about attending to our body, paying attention to our body, interpreting what our body is saying to us, knowing how to listen to our body, knowing what our body knows and is attempting to direct us through our life is essential to our development and our life throughout the time left for living. It all comes down to what our body is saying to us and aligning our life with its directions. That is the only thing standing between us and life as we need to live it.
March 05, 2026
In that there is no way to visualize our Psyche, our Soul, our Intuition, I suggest visualizing all of these terms as our body. And I suggest that we sit quietly and visualize each term separately, asking each one what they have in mind for us, and how we might better cooperate with each one and align ourselves with their purpose for us–how we can help them help us all along the way. And sit quietly waiting for a response from each that we might apply to our life throughout the day, and repeat this practice every day.
March 06, 2026
Our place is to listen to our body and do what needs to be done, do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for in each situation as it arises and let that be that. What’s in it for us? We get to do what is called for in each situation as it arises with the gifts of our original nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our intrinsic intuition and our inherent imagination. We get to show our stuff. To do what we are built to do. What could be more important than that? Situation by situation!
March 06, 2026
It comes down to listening to our body, and that means setting aside times throughout the day for sitting quietly and engaging in a body scan to note what’s what within us and where we need to focus our attention in talking to our body about what it knows that we need to know in order to adjust our life in ways that improve our balance and harmony and our cooperation with the rhythm and flow of our place in the time and place of our living.
Five minute listening stations throughout each day provides us with the opportunity to tune in to what’s what, what’s happening and how we might better accommodate ourselves to what is being asked of us here, now. Focusing and centering ourselves in aligning ourselves with the Tao of life and being and intuiting what needs to happen here, now. All along the way.
March 06, 2026
Ann Weiser Cornell has written “The Power of Focusing” which I find to be very helpful in tuning into our body’s wisdom and its ability to direct our life in terms of maintaining our balance and harmony in right relationship with the rhythm and flow of the circumstances and the spirit of the time and place of our living. Our body is an ever-present source of guidance and direction through all of the here/now’s that are ours to navigate while remaining at one with the work of doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place of the day to day all along The Way.
March 06, 2026
The restaurant where my wife and I have lunch with our three daughters, five granddaughters and two great grandchildren, or however many can make it on any given Friday, is a delightful hum of life and vitality, with the greatest variety of clientele of any restaurant I know of in Charlotte. The experience is always a joy on many levels, and I always wonder what is responsible for the spirit of the place, and why more places don’t exhibit it.
March 06, 2026
Our body houses our intuition–IS our intuition! When we make time to listen to our body we are making time to listen to our intuition. And that changes everything! Deliberately, intentionally, consciously placing ourselves in the service of our intuition transforms our life in a “complete overhaul” kind of way!
When we invite our intuition to take over the guidance and direction of our life, we hand over the controls, and no longer live to have our way, get what we want, and live impulsively in response to the latest brightest, shinny thing to come into our field of vision.
Living intuitively slows us down and allows awareness, reflection and realization to play into our choices, decisions and the direction our life takes in all of the transition points that come out of nowhere from time to time. And that transforms the way we go about being who we are throughout the entire scope of our life in the time left for living.
March 06, 2026
The end of Christianity comes with the realization that the Garden of Eden does not have latitude and longitude. The Garden of Eden is a metaphor emphasizing the danger of allowing wanting/desire to determine our way through life and underscoring the importance of allowing intuition to guide and direct our choices in light of what’s what and what is called for in each situation as it arises.
Understanding this takes Original Sin off the table, doing away with the necessity of atonement and redemption and the need for “Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior” to die on the cross in our place and guaranteeing us heaven forever on the other side of our own death.
And that opens the way to seeing what more there is to life than making God happy with us so that we go to heaven when we die.
My suggestion is that we live so as to know and do what is called for in each situation as it arises–regardless of what that might mean for us personally–in the service of seeing/knowing/doing the right thing at the right time, in the right place, at the right time, moment by moment throughout the time left for living.
When we make living aligned with our intuition the purpose and goal of our living, so that intuition guides our boat on its path through the sea of life, things shift from what we want to do with our life to what we do to do what needs to be done here, now in each situation as it arises–and that transforms everything by raising the question: What is there to want beyond doing what needs to be done here, now, where and how it needs to be done throughout what remains of the life to be lived?
March 06, 2006
One of the things “that has always been called God” is our intuition. We know what needs to be done here, now without knowing how we know and we say, “It must be God directing our life!”, when it is simply intuition directing us along the way of life.
Intuition has always been evidence/proof of the existence of God for us. We know what to do here, now, and project the source of that experience onto God. God is a projection magnet, when it is our own God-like propensity that leads us to see godliness in ourselves in the form of our intuition.
March 08, 2026
Finding our way through our life is a matter of knowing what’s what and where we are and where we need to be. How do we know? Who is to say? Where do we need to be? Who is to say? How do we know? We start with the assumption that we are the one who says so. We say where we need to be. We just make it up. And make corrections and adjustments to better align ourselves with our changing sense of where we need to be in light of our accumulation of experiences. We change our mind in light of our collection of experience. Our experience over time shows us where we need to be, and we make the necessary adjustments to direct ourselves to that location over the course of our life. We decide/choose where we need to be in light of our experience over time. Are we right? Only time will tell. Where we ought to be is a matter of opinion at any point, and our opinion is the one that matters in that it is our life that we are living, and we are the sole authority on matters pertaining to our life. And we base our authority on the strength of our own experience over time. What do we know because we know it from our own experience? We live in light of what we know on the basis of our own experience, which changes as we accumulate additional experience. Which is to say that we change our mind over time based on our experience.
March 08, 2026
We do not know where we would be better off. Where we think we would be better off changes with new information that becomes available to us based on our experience over time. Now it is this, then it may be that. No one can say definitively, for sure, for ever. Our mind changes as our situation changes over time. “For the time being” is as close as we can ever come to where we would be better off in light of the information available to us here, now.
March 08, 2026
Seeing what’s what and baring witness is my thing. I was a preacher for forty and a half years. I retired, but I’m still at it. And proud of it. And the irony of it all is that not only am I still doing what I have always done–bearing witness to the truth–but I am also still throwing out theology and denouncing God. And declaring that it is all about Psyche and Intuition. As those who know have done throughout time.
March 08, 2026
Ricola lemonmint cough drops are advertised as “Sugar Free Lemon Mint oral anesthetic.” And are “manufactured in Laufen, Switzerland.” Just saying, if you ever find yourself in the market for such, you could do worse.
March 08, 2026
I have played the card game Solitaire for years and have only recently come to appreciate it for its potential in developing intuition as the primary element at the heart of the game. I can win games without knowing what I am doing, or being able to explain moves to anyone, including myself. The right move makes itself. And I don’t play to win but to entertain myself in observing what moves are called for when and where.
I am an interested observer of myself playing Solitaire, stunned at outcomes I never saw coming. And I see it as developing my ability to live my life by responding to situations in terms of what is being called for here, now and where that leads/goes in actual “real time” choices/decisions. Not to gain anything or to profit in any way, but just to experience the flow of “action” here, now, before my very eyes. Amazing.
And not to belabor the point, but. This very thing is the heart and soul–the art and soul–of life itself. The wonder of being alive is captured, is exposed, right here! The experience of life is the Whole Point of life! Participating in the Action is being Blessed by Life! And nothing about living is better than this experience, this wonder, of being alive, of life itself! I keep hitting the replay button to do it again!
March 08, 2026
Playing Solitaire in this way is to enter a trance state, which is an excellent way to stand aside and live aligned with our intuition. It is living Zazen–being there without being there. Doing Wu-Wei–doing without doing anything. Trance states are at the heart of doing the right thing well without conscious awareness of doing anything.
March 10, 2026
The foundation of right living is the realization, understanding, comprehension of “NO GAIN!” We aren’t in it (Doing the right thing in the right time, in the right place, in the right way) for what we get out of it. Wu-wei applies to everything all of the time. No pushing. No striving. No trying. Etc. Just doing the right thing, etc. for the sake of doing it alone–for the experience of doing it for itself alone. This is all there is to it.
March 10, 2026
I’m looking forward to being dead. It is the dying part that I would like to miss entirely. As would everyone else, no doubt.
March 10, 2026
We know what we need to hear when we hear it. No one can tell us what we need to hear. We are our own authority in this way. We recognize instantly what we need to hear and what we need to know and what we need to do. And what we do not need to hear, know, do. We can trust ourselves in these ways, and in plenty of other ways as well.
March 10, 2026
Sitting for the sake of sitting is just killilng time. We may as well be throwing rocks in a pond. But sitting waiting to see, hear, know, understand what’s what and what’s happening and what is called for in each situation as it arises in order to get up and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, as the old Taoist advised with “Doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, and the right place,” is sitting that transforms the world. If we are going to sit, let it be sitting to see, hear, know, understand, do, be. See?
March 10, 2026
When we sit to look and listen, we are waiting, open to what’s what, here, now. Sitting, waiting open to what’s what, here now is waiting that transforms the world. That kind of sitting is not sitting. It is the right kind of action in the right kind of way. May all of our sitting be that variety of sitting! Sitting to see, know, understand, do, be, here, now!
March 10, 2026
If you have been with me for a while, you know that I recognize the importance of talking about two Gods: The God of Theology, the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, etc. And the God before and beyond Theology, which I think of as Psyche and Intuition, and which enjoys a plethora of other names throughout history and is known essentially as a way of knowing that knows what’s what, and what’s happening, and what’s called for, when, where and how, etc. without knowing how it knows, but, we know more than we know we know. Which makes knowing what we know a fascinating way to spend some time. And making room for more than one God is also a fascinating way to spend time.
March 11, 2026
Living as those who are open to the wonder of being alive, with no biases, prejudices, assumptions, beliefs, etc. to hem us in and prevent us from following a train of thought to wherever it takes us whenever we want to go for a ride or a walkabout, is a fine way of entertaining ourselves and coming up with enthralling possibilities for quests and exploration without limit.
March 11, 2026
I am hereby living the remainder of my life in recognition of the utter absurdities under which life generally is lived. For instance, “No one is above the law.” That is meaningless and has been from the start, given the state of affairs that have given birth to it and nurtured it through time. And the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, with its “liberty and justice for all” wink, wink, nod, nod throughout all of the times and places of its recitation. Etc. I am disgusted to be affiliated with any of it, all of it, and I am living it out in protest and renunciation.
March 11, 2026
Everybody needs to wake up around the world. That begins with knowing that we do not know what’s what and what needs to be done about it starting with ourselves. No blaming someone else for what’s what! The fault/blame for things being as they are is our own. We have to recognize ourselves for who we are and make the necessary alterations in our frame of mind, point of view, orientation, knowing and doing what is important throughout our life. We have to change our way of life, what we live for, what we live toward. Individually. Personally. And collectively. Now. If you don’t know what I am talking about, it is ours to know, so examine and re-examine everything you think you know until you get to the bottom of what’s what and all the ways you contribute to that, and stop making contributions.
March 11, 2026
We are our own responsibility. If things aren’t right with us, we owe it to ourselves to discover how we are contributing to making things the way they are. We sit with things as they are, awaiting clarity and realization, being aware of everything that comes to mind. Looking for how we might do things differently in making things more like they need to be than they are.
March 14, 2026
What determines what we do, when, where, why, how? What is in charge of our behavior? What directs our path on our way through the sea? How did we wind up here, now? Where will we go from here, now? Why there and not somewhere else instead? When we wait for clarity, what are we waiting on? What happens to cause things to clear up? For the way to be plain? For us to know what to do here, now? How do we know what we know? How do we know what to do? What makes us think so? Know so? What is in charge of our actions day to day? All the way? What muddies the water? What clears the way? What is in charge of determining our behavior throughout each day, throughout each situation that arises throughout each day? Why do we do what we do, when, where, why and how? Do we know? If we don’t know, why don’t we know? If we don’t care, why don’t we care? What could be more important than knowing what directs our actions throughout each moment of each day?
I tend to wait for urges to arise from somewhere within. And then I wait for urges to become urgencies. And my urgencies direct my life. What makes something urgent? What creates urges? What is in charge of urges?
I have never had the urge to lie down on a railroad track. That list would be long, and I don’t have the urge to even begin it. Where do urges come from? What makes some urges urgent but not others? The urge to make these inquiries–where does that come from? What is the Urge Maker within?
Do we ever do anything we have no urge to do? What would be the source of that?
March 15, 2026
When we are who we are the way Jesus was who he was, at that point we can say as Jesus said, “The Father and I are one,” and “No one can come to the Father but by me.” “But by me” means “but by doing it the way I am doing it.” “They way I am living my life to be who I am–to express, exhibit who I am, by being myself.” When we are ourselves the way Jesus was himself, then “The Father and I are one,” and “No one can come to the Father but by me.”
Being ourselves the way only we can be ourselves is being one with the Father. Is being one with Jesus. The Spiritual Journey is just being ourselves. Just being who we are. The way Jesus was himself. The way Jesus was who he was.
March 16, 2026
What we want gets in the way of what is called for and needs to be done. If we possessed the wherewithal to do what needed to be done at the expense of what we want, the world would take an immediate turn toward the good of all concerned. Meaning that selfishness is the source of all of our problems today, every day, all of the time. No?
March 16, 2026
Being who we are, doing it the way we would do it, in each situation as it arises is the Zen approach to life and living. Wanting to be who we are, doing it the way we would do it it all there is to want, to do and to be–in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.
March 17, 2026
I’m eager to see what shape the future takes, and how soon I will be able to make it out. I sense a transition point approaching, and wonder how it will introduce itself. I’m all eyes and ears and feelers at the moment, wondering what the next few days will bring, amazed at how we know that we don’t know and perk up waiting to see what’s what and what is going on, coming about. What kind of shift is about to occur?
March 17, 2026
My writing is a conversation with the inner knower within. The one who knows, I think of as Psyche, a vibrant company and source of endless knowing, who is as close as sitting quietly and watching what comes to mind, and starting with that and seeing where the conversation goes, with me receiving what Psyche offers and watching what that leads to.
We are all living with The Knower within. Why not get to know The Knower and what she knows about any of the things that interest us? Ghost Talking. Opening us to new worlds, for the low, low price of sitting still with a computer in our lap.
March 18, 2026
A daily inventory would start with dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence and checking on what/’s what by looking for what immediately comes to mind, looking into it, making inquiries, maybe emptying ourselves of it, maybe exploring it, maybe just observing it to see where it goes… We take a reading of our balance and harmony, looking for what the sources of noise/disturbance are and what needs to happen to bring things back into “peaceful abiding, here, now.” Looking for what is called for and what needs to be done about it, and what that implies for the day…
No agenda, no expectations, no judgement, no desires… Just looking, just seeing, just listening, just hearing, just being aware of what we need to be aware of, seeing what has urgency, energy about it, being open to what meets us and seeing where we go with it…
Maybe the dreams of the previous night need to be explored, probed to see what associations they bring to light and where we might go with that…
I am currently at the place of seeing prayer as awareness/realization as we open ourselves to the “News of the day.” We take it all in, observing, responding, exploring… Disengaged and reserved, taking it all in, observing what’s what and what the implications might be, or surely are…Prayerfully receiving what is to be received. To meet the day in this way is to “Pray always.” A prayerful attitude carries us through the day, remembering Rumi’s observation, “If you are not here with us in good faith, you are doing terrible damage.” Blend this with Jesus’ “Pray always,” and we have the essence of what it means to “live prayerfully.”
A prayerful way of being would be a gracious way of being. Receiving the world well. A kind and compassionate way of being. A gentle and merciful way of being. A Wu-wei way of being. As we live to get wu-wei down, we transform the world just by our manner and attitude, in responding to all that meets us in a day.
Examining, exploring, the things that have a sense of urgency about them as we go through a day will be instructive to us of what is important to us, and perhaps of what directs us through a day, and how well, how fully, we are responding to what comes our way.
We see ourselves as we see ourselves seeing what we look at, and knowing what we know, what we wonder about and what we assume. What we like and don’t like…
I would be in favor of keeping things as they are, and we know that isn’t going to happen. Trump is playing with worldwide economic catastrophe by tearing everything down and burning it all up just because he can and no one is going to stop him, which leaves us all with just trying to make it through another day with no resources to speak of and nothing to be able to count on. We all will soon be street people, or close enough, and what we do then will be a nightmare for planet earth all because people elected the worst man in the world to be President of the United States.
March 20, 2026
The entire world may as well be at war for the difference the impact of being at war with various countries in the Middle East makes on the lives of the world’s populations. We know some things are going to disappear and some other things will be imposed, but we have no idea of what will be required of us and how we might begin to make preparations. So, we wait to see, reducing our expectations and increasing our capacity for adjustment and accommodation, and our ability to allow our life to be just what it is, and to be willing to do whatever it takes in the service of balance and harmony in dealing with all that must be dealt with throughout what lies ahead.
March 20, 2026
I have learned to drop into emptiness, stillness and silence and wait there for clarity until what is called for in the moment at hand arises of its own volition and I find myself doing what needs to be done without thinking. We are geared to meeting the moment automatically, spontaneously, when we aren’t concerned with getting our way and having what we want. Do not have a way. Do not have a want. Just see, do. Know what is needed and do that. This is not hard. Wu-wei is the way. No one can improve on it. When the fish takes the bait, the hook takes the fish. Nothing to it.
March 20, 2026
I would do better with more experience. You would, too. By the time we are ready to start living, we will be dead. Reincarnation needs to be a thing. Double reincarnation would be a great thing. The third time around would surely be a snap, no? I’m living for the third time around!
March 20, 2026
Thunder Hill Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway going north out of Blowing Rock, North Carolina is a wonderful place to gather at dusk to witness day’s end. Arrive 30 minutes before sunset and remain for thirty minutes after sunset, and you will be gifting yourself with dusking, and you will be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend an hour during any day.
March 21, 2026
Everybody ought to just grow up and get over it. I don’t care how “mature” someone is, they are all immature about something and ought to just grow up and get over it–particularly about someone else needing to grow up and get over it.
We all grow up in our own time in our own way and all of us are always immature about something all of the time. Which is exposed by our not being grown up about someone else just needing to grow up and get over it,
March 21, 2026
Most of our problems are caused by the way we look at things. By the conclusions we draw. By the assumptions we make. By how we assess, think about, what we see. And that is because we do not take the time to see how we are seeing. We do not evaluate our evaluations. We do not examine the evidence that leads to our assessment of things. Enter the real holy trinity: Emptiness, Stillness, Silence. Time spent digging around in these three words in order to know what they mean in ways that clarify everything we think we know is the best way to spend time that I know of.
March 21, 2026
Wanting is the biggest block to being there is. Being simply drops into emptiness, stillness and silence and waits for clarity about what’s what and what is called for and what needs to be done about it, when, where and how. Does it, drops into emptiness, stillness and silence and waits for clarity… In each situation as it arises. And that’s that. What does wanting know? When is wanting satisfied? Wanting is a distraction. A sidetrack. A diversion. Emptying ourselves of wanting is a regular routine before moving into stillness and silence.
March 22, 2026
Wu-wei Is getting things done without intentionally doing anything, just getting out of the way and allowing things to happen as needed according to the drift and flow of life.
Not-caring is a lot like not-doing. The less we care about outcomes, or about what happens, the more things happen as they need to happen and the less we have to worry about things happening. Not-caring is about not being hooked into whatever is going on. Being “beyond the fray.” This also can be thought of as “Caring without caring.”
Two of the most important life strategies I know of.
March 23, 2026
Taking our time to see what we look at, to listen to what we hear, to know what we know and to do what is called for in each situation as it arises, should do it, no?
March 23, 2026
Life is loud. It takes dedication and concentration to live quietly and listen to the silence. The work to be detached and disengaged is itself a form of attachment, investment and affiliation. Noise is everywhere all of the time, making letting go constant and unending. And so, Aeschylus, in Agamemnon, observed, “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” Meaning, I take it, we will wake up, to some extent, over time, whether we want to or not. Even the noise is instructive.
March 23, 2006
Cooperating with Psyche/Intuition means paying attention, being aware of, all that we can be aware of throughout every day. “Now this, now that, here we are, now what?” Seeing what we look at, hearing what we listen to. Always attending the contradictions, the irony, the disparity, the connections, “On the one hand this, on the other hand that,” world without end… Making sense of it all insofar as sense can be made of any of it. The constancy of inconstancy is amazing. Nonsense is everlasting. It is a clown show where even the clowns are crying, and even the curtain goes up as the curtain comes down (vice/versa). And living takes the life right out of us. I am sorry/not sorry. I care/don’t care. I know/don’t know… And that is just the way it is. For all of us all of the time.
March 23, 2006
Our place is to maintain a stable, steady, predictable environment in which we can observe, experience, examine, explore, investigate, experiment, draw conclusions, test hypotheses, reflect, realize, comprehend, understand, what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for, what needs to be done about it, in response to it, in order to sustain the flow of life and being in ways that support “peaceful abiding, here, now” in maintaining a stable, steady, etc., world without end always and forever.
March 24, 2006
There is what we think. There is what we know. There is what we realize. Sense. Feel. Comprehend. Understand. Do…
Why “this” and not “that”? What controls what’s what? What guides our boat on its path through the sea? What is the source/goal of our motivation? Of our action? What directs us through each day?
When, where, how, why are we “at peace”? What disturbs our “peace”? Balance and harmony come from where? Are maintained how? Why? What’s behind it all? What is behind US? What is it going to take for us to be “at peace at last”? Death? Life is the craziest thing I know of. There is no “making sense” of any of it. If “water seeks its own level,” what are WE seeking with all of our coming and going? “Emptiness, stillness, silence,” is the best I can do. “Emptiness, stillness, silence in the serice of emptiness, stillness, silence.” Which is a lot like being dead. No? Life lives seeking to die? “Is that all there is?” In the meantime what? Whatever “suits our fancy”? We entertain ourselves until we die? Is “sitting, looking out the window,” the next best thing to being dead? Are we each responsible for our own entertainment until we die? Is life its own “perpetual motion machine”? Seeking its own reason for being alive? I’m good with that. And you?
March 24, 2006
My wife and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, a great granddaughter and a great grandson. The granddaughter is 4 years old, the grandson is 2 years old. And they are my favorite people. Being with them is life itself. A total delight. An absolute joy. Witnessing spontaneity in action. Utter innocence in the service of their own interest and curiosity. Simply being who they are, here, now. The ideal for us all.
March 24, 2006
If it were up to me, I would sit still, be quiet and wait for what is called for here, now, to arise out of the mist and call me to action. And I would repeat that cycle throughout what remains of the time left for living.
March 25, 2006
The old Taoists who said all that is is the result of “Circumstances begetting circumstances,” perceived that is all there ever is, and ever will be. Nothing/no one is in charge of the unfolding or the direction of what is happening, and what we think we are doing is upstaged by details we failed to consider and responses we did not recognize as possibilities, and Trump has started a war without comprehending that it is easier to start a war than it is to stop one. And 77 million people voted for him, assuming he would know what he was doing–and that he would do what would be to their advantage. Evidently, no one told them how important it was to know what they were doing. And now the entire world is at the mercy of circumstances begetting circumstances, with no one in control of what happens next, toward what end. Stupid people never realize how stupid they are.
March 26, 2026
The great-grandchildren laugh a lot and take nothing seriously for very long. They discover, and can do, new things every day. I want to be just like them when I grow up (And I am becoming more like them all the time!). They are teaching me how to age gracefully, laughing a lot and taking nothing seriously for long. Discovering and doing new things every day (And forgetting all the things that never did much for me anyway). We make a great threesome, dancing together into tomorrow, and the day after, all the way to wherever we will be when we get there.
March 26,2026
I don’t see how religion/spirituality/God/etc. can be anything other than projection. Where does experience end and projection begin? What we tell ourselves about our experience, how we interpret our experience, is what we expect, assume, presuppose our experience to be prior to our actual experience. So that reflection leads to the realization of what are we predict our experience to be before our actual experience–going to the dentist, for example. How we experience our experience, how we interpret our experience, is projection in action. Racism is projecting our assumptions upon people of different races and “seeing” what we “expect to see” when we look at members of different races.
Everything is projection. The most objective reality has to be interpreted/ understood/said/explained subjectively–on the basis of our expectations of what we will experience about the reality in question prior to our experience. Subjectivity is the foundation of projection. Projection is the essence of our take on reality. How can it not be? Direct experience is experienced subjectively. How can it not be? If we had no expectations we could not experience anything! We cannot see something that is utterly meaningless to us. Locomotives were called “Iron Horses” by native Americans who had no experience of machinery. We have no words for things we have not previously experienced.
So, “projection” here is not a psychological defensive mechanism, but an individual’s tendency to assume outcomes that reflect their personal bias, expectations, preferences, emotional investment, and subjective values onto scientific experiments and personal evaluations throughout our life. Our religion is our projection of how we expect/desire religion to be. We are who our projections have shaped is to be.
March 26, 2026
These are tough times. Mercy and kindness will do much good in times such as these. Be sensitive to opportunities to be merciful and kind. Everybody is on thin ice, at the end of their rope. Cut them all a little slack, and may others cut you some as well. “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” Which I add silently to every “Namaste” I offer along the way.
March 26, 2026
I don’t talk much about prayer. That’s because words have nothing to do with prayer. Like faith has nothing to do with spirituality. Spirituality is not about believing anything (Except believing it is not about believing anything). And prayer is not about words (Except to say no words are allowed in prayer). When Jesus said, “Pray always,” it sounds impossible because we associate prayer with words. I suggest we associate prayer with living prayerfully.
How would we live prayerfully? How would we live a godly life? How would we live lovingly? Devote yourself to the work of finding out. Begin living prayerfully, godly, lovingly. That’s all Jesus ever did. And he said, “Come, follow me.”
March 27, 2026
The God of theology is a left-brain production, all reasonable and logical, with 10 commandments, and sin as the cause for everything being exactly what it is and why. The God before theology and beyond theology is much more spur-of-the-moment with everything being produced by the rhythm and flow of circumstances and influenced by 10,000 things with no way of knowing what is going to happen next in a “The Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will” kind of way. Which God are we more comfortable with? Most like?
March 27, 2026
The Self develops along the lines of self-expression, self-realization, self-discovery, etc., and for that to happen, there has to be a concerted effort at self-consciousness over the full course of our life. We live to be self-aware, which includes self-observation, dream-work, and self-acceptance. Who is the “I” at the heart of who we are? We live to find out–to know who we are and what is ours to do. What is “me” and “not-me”? Let’s don’t die without knowing!
March 29, 2026
I think that the problem with us is that what we want keeps us from being who we are, doing what is ours to do.
We do not want to be who we are, doing what is ours to do.
We want something else, something bigger, finer, more fun. We want something other than–better than–this. Than who we are, doing what is ours to do. So, we spend most of our time with diversions, distractions, addictions, denial. Not being who we are. Not doing what is our to do. Alienated from ourselves. Cut off from. At odds with. Who we are and what is ours to do.
The solution, I believe, is copious amounts of emptiness, stillness, silence. Sitting, not thinking, just sitting. Listening, watching, open to, aware of the emptiness, etc., waiting to realize what’s what, what’s happening, what’s called for, to become apparent, that we might embrace it and incorporate it into our life, sensing, knowing, what is right for us, here, now, so that we might begin to do the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place here, now, in each situation as it arises, throughout the time left for living. Our plan is to simply be open here, now and see where it goes, day-by-day in all the days that follow. With nothing scripted, nothing planned (We plan to have no plan). Surprising ourselves discovering who we are and what is ours to do. Allowing our life to lead the way apart from logic, reason, rationality, intellect. Allowing our life to show us, to reveal to us, who we are, what we are about.
We sit waiting for instruction, for direction, for guidance, watching, listening, knowing, doing in an intuitive, introspective, faithful, obedient, kind of way.
We have the rest of our life to be who we are, doing what is our to do.
March 29, 2026
I do not know what would be helpful, good, right except in the most general, vague, indefinite kind of way. You would not want me orchestrating your life, saying “Yes” to this and “No” to that, step by step from rising to back to bed day by day.
“Sit still,” “be quiet,” “see what comes to mind,” “see what associations you make with what comes to mind as you find your way through the day.” “Where do the lines lie?” “What broadly constitutes ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for you, here, now? ‘Me’ and ‘Not me’?” Our identity is our guiding light. We live to be who we are, doing what is ours to do the way we would do it. Knowing this is the way of reflecting to the point of realization about who we are, what is ours to do. We live to know that, to do that, to be that. Day by day all the way.
March 29, 2026
What needs to happen in any situation is what is called for by that situation. How do we know what that is? Who says so? How do we know right from wrong here, now? How can we be sure? What makes us think so? How do we verify that? Corroborate that? Who do we talk it over with? Consult? Trust? God? Psyche? Intuition? Projection? Do we just make it up and let that be that?
I have heard that Psychopaths can commit the most horrendous crimes as though it is someone else who is doing the terrible act and then distance themselves further from their deed by way of a form of amnesia whereby they forget everything about what they have done.
I wonder if we might come to our own rescue, so to speak, in a similar kind of way by denying that we think what we think, feel what we feel, do what we do, and have no association with the “me” that does think, feel and do what we think, feel and do but fail/refuse to recognize that as something we would do. And if we cannot trust ourselves to know who we are and what we are doing, where does that leave us? If we can not-know what we are doing, how can we trust ourselves to ourselves? How can we trust ourselves to find the way? Is insanity just another way of getting by?
March 29, 2026
We are responsible for our life being as it is. One choice after another and here we are. Day after day in each situation as it arises. Why do we do what we do? Why do we think what we think? What is behind us? What is up with us? How does what we want play into who we are? Who do we talk us over with? Who is/are our sounding board(s)? Who calls us out? Names our disingenuousness? Refuses to allow us to get by with kidding ourselves? How often do we kid ourselves? What is behind, at the bottom of, kidding ourselves? Why kid ourselves?
March 30, 2026
Everything is striving to be just what it is, and is interfering with everything else striving to be just what it is. The antelope is eating grass, the lion is eating the antelope. Each is doing its thing at the expense of something else doing its thing. And we say everything is in harmony, when everything is at war. We say, “Everything is at one,” when everything is trying to be itself and to hell with everything else. Oneness is not what we think it is. What we call “oneness” is what the Buddhists call “Bardo,” the space between events, the pause between eating and being eaten, “the ‘gap’ of potentiality between any two states of being.” Everything is “at peace” if the time gap is short enough. Everything is “at war” if the time gap is long enough. “Oneness” is nonexistent over the long term. And just a momentary thing in the short term.
March 30, 2026
“Here, now” doesn’t last long at all from one point of view. From another point of view, “here, now” is all there ever is. What we see depends on how we look.
There are always different ways of seeing what we look at. How things are is never one particular thing for very long. Or it is one particular thing always and forever. Things are always at war somewhere. Chaos and catastrophe, or smooth and easy, depending on the time frame within which things are viewed.
March 30, 2026
The “sin” of Adam and Eve was/is wanting things to be the way they wanted things to be. No one is content with the way things are for long. All war is the result of people wanting things to be the way they want things to be. Pushing our idea of how things ought to be upon how things are is the mode of operating for human beings–actually for all living things–in their relationship with their environment. We all can want what we have no business having. What is “Yes!” for one is “No!” for another. How are we ever going to make our peace with how things are forever?
We walk into the next moment with ideas of how things ought to be there, and live to make things how we think things should be there. We want to do what is called for in light of our idea of how things should be. It is only our idea. It has no relation to what actually needs to be. Thus, our place is to recognize the difference between our idea of how things are and how they ought to be and the way things genuinely need to be from the standpoint of the situation as a whole.
We can impose our idea of what the situation needs upon what the situation actually needs. How do we set ourselves aside in order to do what needs to be done from the situation’s point of view for itself? How good is the good we call good? Good for what? Good for whom? Whose good–whose idea of the good–take priority over the other goods at work in any situation? Who says so? How do we know so?
If Adam and Eve had taken everything into account, would they have eaten the fig/apple/pomegranate/etc. still? Anyway? Even so?
March 30, 2026
If I respond to the moment out of my sense of what is called for by the moment and appropriate to the moment, and shift my response in a dance with the moment, always offering what I sense is called for here, now, no, here, now… Then I have done right by the moment to the extent that my take on the moment is accurate. And if I live to do right by the moment in each situation as it arises, I will be true to myself and my will for my life (Which is to do right by every moment in every moment as it arises) throughout my life.And I need to say here that what is right for the moment includes taking into account what is right for me in the moment, which may be a nap, or sitting looking out the window, or reading, or…
March 30, 2026
Rural Texas is pretty much identical to rural Tennessee, and rural New Hampshire, and rural Mississippi, and rural Louisiana, and rural everywhere. Things get more complicated as the population increases. I have no idea what the ideal number of people per squire mile is. Ideal in terms of what? Whose idea of “the ideal” is ideal?
The number of people per square mile makes a difference in what those people think is ideal. Thin them out, pack them in, they become different in terms of what they take to be good, and bad, and horrid. In terms of what they think ought to be and ought not be. So. How do we know what is good, and bad, and horrid? How do we know when we are right about it? How do we trust what we think we know, knowing it changes as the number of people around us changes? How valid is what we think we know, ever?
March 30, 2026
My first six years were spent in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and in the Mississippi delta, until I was in the 4th grade. Then in Monroe, Shreveport and Natchitoches, Louisiana, then in Austin, Texas for seminary, then back to the Louisiana delta for 12 years, and to the Mississippi hill country for 10 years, and to Greensboro, North Carolina for 12 years, and retirement in Charlotte, North Carolina to the present. I have travelled extensively in the service of my photography, putting me in the company of people throughout the United States and into Canada. And derive my opinion about what people knowing being a function of how many people live around them from being with people in rural and metropolitan areas–and conclude that we know what we think we know based on the number of people who live in close proximity to us, and has nothing to do with what we know but with where we live.
Raising the question, what is the ideal number of people per square mile for being more likely to think for ourselves than to be influenced by the number of people living in proximity to us? And, further, is living in a tightly controlled environment like a Buddhist monastery more likely to produce cult-like thinking regardless of the number of people who live there? How does mind control become “a thing”? How much space do we have to have in order to be in control of our own mind? And how does “social media” invade our “mental space” to the point of being a source of mind control even though we don’t live physically close to very many people?
March 31, 2026
I look around and am utterly astounded at what I see. What. Is. Going. On??? Why are we living as we are? Why are we doing what we are doing? What are we thinking? For instance, how can anyone take Christianity seriously? They “take it on faith” that a spiritual being called “God” created everything by saying, “Let there be light.” Etc.
WHY would anyone take that on faith? Because they are told they will go to hell if they don’t. And WHY WOULD THEY TAKE THAT ON FAITH???
If you are going to take something on faith, why not let it be that everyone is born with exactly what they need to find what they need to live as they need to live all their life long? Now, THAT is something worth taking on faith!
But taking it on faith that God is going to kill everyone who displeases HIM, which is also ridiculous. Not HER, but HIM. Okay, anyway, God is a bully stuck in the terrible twos who is a tyrant killing everyone who doesn’t do it HIS way. Who would/could LOVE a God like that? Idiocy. And it gets better. Who can love anyone who will kill you if you don’t love HIM? I don’t know much about love, but I know enough to know love cannot be commanded, forced, made to happen. It has to be spontaneous, natural, intuitive, “of the moment,” for it to count. It cannot be commanded into being. And it keeps getting increasingly outlandish all the way to dying and going either to heaven or to hell, and what that means like anyone could possibly know. WHO SAYS SO??? Whomever it is, they “take it on faith.” Which means they make it up and say it is so. Absolute nonsense and it is taken seriously by a large number of people around the world over time.
WHAT???
March 31, 2026
What does it mean to “live well”? Who says so? That has to be you, doesn’t it? Each of us has to determine/decide what it means to live well and then go about doing it. What does living well mean to you? To me, it means integrity. Being who I say I am. Doing what I would be happy/proud to do and not doing what I would be ashamed of doing. And not lying to myself about my motives and my actions. Being upfront with myself and with all others about who I am and what I am doing. And, for me, personally, it means to live a quiet (as in Not Noisy) simple life with plenty time for reflection to the point of new realizations, and doing things that interest me, exploring, probing, investigating, searching, seeking… Serving my curiosity. Asking questions, making observations. Getting to the bottom of things. Like that. And you?
March 31, 2026
Jim Dollar's Published Works 